Zion condor found dead; was likely lead poisoning

SALT LAKE CITY -- A California condor found dead at Zion National Park is
believed to have died from lead poisoning after foraging on a bullet-ridden game
carcass, in another setback for the recovery project on the Utah-Arizona border,
officials said Monday.

Separately, two condors found dead in northern Arizona in December were
confirmed by The Peregrine Fund to have died of lead poisoning. The latest
fatality involved a 9-year-old female that had been observed searching nesting
cavities together with a mate at Zion, which takes out a breeding pair.

The condor was found dead Wednesday near Angel's Landing at Zion National Park.
Biologists were alerted to a problem when a motion device signaled the bird
hadn't moved for much of a day, said Chris Parish, project director for The
Peregrine Fund's recovery project for an area from Arizona's Grand Canyon to
southern Utah's Zion National Park.

The condor's body was sent to a San Diego lab for testing. Results aren't
expected for a week or more.

Restoring the California condor to much of its historic range across the
Southwest has been hampered by dozens of deaths linked to lead from the remnants
of hunters' bullet.

About half of the roughly 130 condors released since 1996 along the
Arizona-Utah border have died or vanished, wildlife officials say. For birds
that have been recovered, lead poisoning turned up as the main cause of death,
Parish said.

More condors are released ever year, with the current population hovering at
just under 80, he said.

As scavengers, North America's largest land bird feasts on carcasses such as
deer and coyotes left behind by hunters.

Hunters generally prefer lead bullets because they are heavier and shoot
straighter than other types of ammunition. They are cheaper than bullets made of
copper or other metals. But they break into hundreds of fragments when they hit
an animal, then get ingested by scavengers like the condor.

The condor recovery program would have been wildly successful if not for the
lead problem, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have told The Associated
Press.

Condors can live for 50 years, but nesting pairs usually produce only one egg
every other year, creating a challenge to build up a population once down to
just 22 birds in the 1980s.

California has built up a population of more than 100 wild condors, largely due
to a separate recovery program there.

The California Department of Fish and Game in 2008 banned the use of lead
ammunition in the 15 counties considered condor territory, but many ranch owners
ignore the directive, and some have said it's because they believe the ammo ban
subjugates their rights.

Arizona is trying to reduce the toll on condors by providing vouchers for
lead-free bullets and other rewards for hunters who dispose of carcasses
properly.

The birds are known for flying 100 miles or more a day on wings that stretch up
to 9 feet from tip to tip, surveying the land for any sign of commotion. Even
wildfires alert the birds to a possible dinner, experts say.